Katie Price | UK MMA NEWS

Sol Gilbert Interview

Oct 152009

sol_profile Sol “Zero Tolerance” Gilbert is a well known fighter, coach and MMA entrepreneur. A former professional boxer and veteran of the early UK MMA scene, he built up a 5-0-1 unbeaten amateur record on the Combat Sports National Championships in 2002. He then moved into the pro division, making his name with one of the big events at the time – Ultimate Combat and winning their British Middleweight title, before moving onto Cage Rage where his explosive striking style made him a big hit with the Cage Rage audience. He amassed a 9-5-1 professional record, before calling time on his fight career to concentrate on his own MMA Gym ZT Fight Skool in Hove. The Gym went from strength to strength and the ZT name has grown into arguably one of the most recognisable “brands” in UKMMA.

Sol has had great success with his fighters, most notably the undefeated UFC veteran John “the hitman” Hathaway. Under the ZT banner Sol also runs a Personal Training business out of his ZT Fitness gyms which boasts a celebrity clientele including Katie Price among others. There are now two ZT Fight Skools with Eastbourne opening in the New Year, ZT Kids Fit Skool opening in December and he runs successful Amateur MMA Tournaments which are a great proving ground for up and comers in UKMMA and there is also the “ZT FightNight” MMA promotions.

As if all that wasn’t enough to keep him going, he has recently announced that a new MMA event will be coming early next year, and it’s one that has got internet fans attention straight away: A one night, 8 man, Heavyweight Tournament. I got a quick email interview with Sol to ask a few more questions about the tournament and see how it’s all progressing:

Hi Sol thanks for talking to us today. The forums have been buzzing with anticipation for your new venture since you announced it: You are going to put on a 1 night, 8 man winner takes all old school style tournament. It’s a great idea that should really shake up the UK HW rankings and potentially put the winner firmly on the European and world stage, how did it come about?

I’ve just put myself into two pairs of shoes a fighter trying to get signed by the UFC and the UK MMA fan. The fighter who is trying to get signed would love the chance to prove he is the pound for pound best un-signed fighter in his division and with this event he can claim that. The UK MMA Fan gets a chance to see the best of UK’s talent battle it out in one night.. it’s like christmas all round..

Why the heavyweights?

There is a big buzz at the moment with the lightweights & welters and we have a big pool of talent over here and due to the comments on CageWarriors asking for a card with the best on it, it seemed like the
obvious choice.

You are really busy with running the various ZT fightskools, your new kidz fit venture, personal training clients, you also already put on ZT fight Night events… how the hell are you gonna fit in organising an event of this magnitude as well? Do you ever sleep? [laughs]

Yeah, but I am a early riser, i mean this morning I was up at 3:30am checking e-mails as I missed a day on my PC yesterday, so I had about 120 e-mails to catch up on! Today I had to teach and train 2 clients
and meet with my accountant before heading off to London at 930am to sign the relevant forms for the event..and I have the ZT Team behind me of course!

Is there a name for the tournament yet? Will it be held under the ZT Fight Night banner?

Yes it is Called ” ZT FIGHT NIGHT – THE TOURNAMENT”
(check out www.ztfightnight.com!)

There are some big Domestic names being touted for this tournament, have you got your final 8 yet?

We are very close, to choosing our final eight..

Can you confirm who you have approached, for those readers who may not know yet or have been living under a rock the past few weeks?

Rob Broughton – Damian Grabowski – Martin Thompson – Neil Grove – Karlos Vermola – Oli Thompson – Wilson Jnr – Neil Wain…..

Are they all signed and confirmed or are there a few tbc’s?

The contracts are just being finalised and all should be signed over the next few days!

What are the contingencies in case of fighter injuries on the night… will there be a reserve roster? Who will be on that?

Medics Ice and a stretcher [laughs]… no seriously we will have 4 alternates fighting on the night in case someone gets injured then they can step in and it’s fair as everyone would have fought at least once.

The prize money being mentioned is around £15k. That has to be one of the biggest purses for a non-ufc fight on UK soil. We have to ask….Is this a bit of hype or is this purse confirmed?

Nope confirmed!!

Is it only going to be the winner that gets paid? Or will all the fighters be taking home a competitors fee?

No Winner takes all!! Losers get Jack!!

UK MMA fans have sometimes seen events announced that look like they will be amazing, only for it all to fall flat at the last minute much to the disappointment of all involved and usually because of “outside influences” like interfering local councils. Are you in a position to assure the fans that this IS going ahead, or are we still very much in the planning stages?

This is the most important thing, I don’t want people to tarnish me with the same brush as others, I tend to stay away from the internet and just do my own thing, building my brand “ZT” and ensuring that everything I
do is to the best of my ability ( I mean I sacrificed my fight career for building a business) so if I say I am going to do something and put my balls on the line then trust me it will happen.

On your site you announced the venue – the HMV forum in Kentish Town – is booked for Jan 30th 2010. This is more well-known as a music gig venue / nightclub. How have negotiations gone with them?

All done and signed, in fact we also signed another 3 dates after the 30th january for further shows.

MMA has had the spotlight shone firmly on it by the mainstream media recently, largely due to a very high-profile relationship between media celebrity Katie Price and your good friend Alex Reid. Not all of the press has been good and a lot of trashy mags and red-tops are sensationalising MMA as “brutal cage-fighting”. I read an article about the last Ultimate Challenge in one of my wife’s coffee-break magazines that actually said “Fighters are frisked for razor blades as they step into the cage”!! Does this sort of ridiculous press make it hard to persuade venues like the HMV forum that it’s a good idea to put on an MMA event?

Sometimes I have had problems with certain venues down to bad press, but on this occasion they have been very welcoming and they came to ZTFN 18 and witnessed how we operated first hand and gave us the go ahead. Obviously crowd safety is paramount and we want to ensure that there is nobody in the venue with any weapons so we have agreed to bag searches and and metal detectors.

I really like the gladiatorial element of the one-night tournament format and would love to see it done for other weight divisions. I’m sure there are a lot of fighters who would like to test themselves in such a way. You mention you have secured 3 other dates with the venue so can we assume this event will become a fixture in the UKMMA calendar? If you do it again which weight division would be next?

It is going to become a permanant fixture and as for what weight next you will have to wait and see.

Have you made any approaches to any TV networks to get coverage for the event? I’m sure many fans who couldn’t make it to london would love to get the opportunity to see the fights!

We have had offers but to be honest I’d rather wait and make sure we get the right deal that is going to give the right message for UK MMA.

Finally have you got anything else you want to add, any shout outs or any other big announcements for the fans?

Yeah, to all fans of UK MMA get behind this show as this is going to forge the future for some un-signed MMA Athlete and place them on the main stage……

Thanks Sol, looking forward to the show!

UKMMANews would like to wish Sol and the ZT Team all the best with the event! Stay tuned to the site for more info about the confirmed fighters and the event. For further information on training with Sol for fitness or MMA check out www.solgilbert.com

Dave O'Donnell gives his thoughts on Ultimate Challenge "Mayhem".

General Content 4 Responses »

Sep 222009

This past saturday saw the Troxy in Bethnal Green, play host once again to Ultimate Challenge. What was unusual about this event was the overwhelming mainstream media attention, largely due to one of the events marquee fighters – Alex Reid dating a certain Miss Katie Price.

There has been a lot of talk in the tabloid media and on the internet forums about this event and so we approached the promoter, Dave O’Donnell to give a quick email interview to address some of the questions that have arisen from the furore over the event.

Thanks for taking the time out to talk to us. First up I’d like to start by saying congratulations on the show. Although I couldn’t be there I’ve heard there were some excellent fights on the card and read some great reviews of the action, how do you feel it went purely from the point of view of the fights?

Personally I dont think we could have squeezed more entertainment into the 4 hours that we did. Start to finish, it was absolutely fantastic. The fights were out of this world .

I haven’t had the opportunity to see the reid fight yet but some are calling it a “fix” and saying mason won, whilst others are calling it a close but correct decision. Do you have a comment on this? How did you see the fight?

At Ultimate Challenge we try to match fights as evenly as possible, but sometimes youve got to go into that rocky situation and give the underdog a chance of a lifetime which weve done on many occasions. Sometimes the underdog prevails for example Neil Grove Vs James Thompson, Gary Turner Vs Tank Abbott, James McSweeney Vs Malcolm Mc Donald, and sometimes its just a great fight Alex Reid Vs Dave Menne. I was sitting ringside on the fight 1st round to Alex Reid, 2nd round to Jack Mason and from my point of view they were exchanging excellent blows both ways. The only significant difference was Alex pushing forward all the time he never took a back step. It had nothing to do with him being the Champ; if youre a judge you look at whos pushing the fight. Anyway who am I? thats just my opinion.

Obviously there has been a lot of media focus on Alex Reid who is an Ultimate Challenge/Cage Rage veteran, due to his relationship with Katie Price. This meant that your event has attracted a lot more mainstream press attention than it would perhaps have normally attracted. Is all press good press no matter what?

No I wouldnt say that but lets face it, no other fight including Boxing has had this much media attention from the tabloids, red tops etc.Lets face it whatever you read in the papers is always ten-fold. If I punched a guy once, in the papers it would say I punched him x10.Apart from UFC we are the only organisation to employ full time PR staff. Before Alex Reid and Katie Price came into the equation we have had The Sun and The Mirror sitting cage-side at our past events. Our main objective has always been to get MMA mainstream.

A lot of reports in the media and on the forums have said that it was a bad decision to let Katie Price in the cage to address the crowd after the fight. Although it could be argued that she was defending herself after being jeered by some sections of the crowd, some observers feel that her reaction didnt really help the situation and only incited the crowd further?

Its easy to criticise after the situation has passed, but with celebrities like Katie Price not putting her in the cage would have been a bad call. She was in the cage and she hit all the papers on Sunday and again on Monday. She was only trying to put her point across and kept saying both guys were winners. Another comment Ive heard time and time again is the crowd thought Alex had lost, you could tell by the way they were booing him at the end. Lets reflect on this for a minute. From the moment we started talking about the fight every time we mentioned Jacks name the crowd cheered, every time we mentioned Alex name the crowd booed, that was before a punch was even thrown! What gave you the inclination that this would change after a judges decision?!

Obviously crowd control is a concern at any event like this. Some accounts from people that were there, say the crowd are far too close to the athletes and one of Reids corner actually stated on the internet that Alex was struck by so-called fans on his way to and from the cage. Also some people attempted to gain access to his dressing room to remonstrate with Reid after his fight! What are your thoughts on the venue security at the Troxy? Will there be any changes for subsequent UC events?

Lets get one thing straight, Ive promoted 40 MMA events. We have held shows at Wembley Arena holding up to 9000 people. Ive attended events in Vegas, LA, Japan and Brazil all over the world. Unfortunately security do not have crystal balls. At any high-profile event people always try to access VIP areas if someone did try to get into Alexs room, they didnt succeed.

Your events sometimes come in for some criticism from UKMMA fans for the way they are marketed. There is often a hard man angle presented (for example with Ben Smith hardest man in Kent”), some would argue that by marketing an event like this you will perhaps attract a crowd that are more inclined to want to go get beered up and see a scrap than those who appreciate MMA for the skills of the athletes and the art involved in the sport. What are your thoughts on this, is it all about “putting bums on seats”?

I feel this question is biased, and perhaps influenced by the forums. Firstly we dont have much of a marketing budget. Secondly How do we market our events any different to any other event and thirdly – do I & OJ look like gangsters?

Every part of our team has some involvement with MMA, judges, security you name it. This is because we believe in and love the sport. As for some of these other shows in the country, are they the ones that have gone bust? With 200 people in the audience can you hear a pin drop? Yes our events are filled, rowdy etc but what do you expect from some of the most loyal fans in the country ? If there are no bums on seats there are no shows.

Finally Dave, is there anything else you would like to add?

Dane White got criticised for years on the forums. My pat on the back is a long way off but dont worry Im still intending on giving it my best shot and the best fighter opportunities. With that said I’d like to thank the fans, fighters, and our hard working staff who relentlessly work in making our shows such a success. If you hate Ultimate Challenge remember DO NOT tune into Sky Sports 3 on 30th September at 10pm!

Whilst we’re sure some of the events of saturday will continute to be debated on internet message boards and in the media, we hope that giving Dave the opportunity to give his side will answer some of the questions UKMMA fans may have. Love it or hate it, Ultimate Challenge and Dave O’Donnell are here to stay!

The full results from Saturdays event are as follows:
Full Results
-Ben Smith def Kiane Sabet via Arm Triangle R1 3:09
-Francis Heagney def Tim Radcliffe via Guilletine R2 3:12
-Mike Edwards def Jamie Hearn via GnP R1 2:13
-Wesley Murch def Mark Smith via kimura R1 4:55
-Jake Bostwick def Chris Harman via RNC R3 2:30
-Colin French def Liam Etabar via ref stop GnP R1 2:56
-John Kelly def Keith Singh via RNC R2 5:00
-Dan Movahedi def Michael Sidwell via GnP R1 1:37
-Shane Omar def Marcus Thomas via T/O Kimura R1 2:24
-Mark Adams def Simon Gill via T/O Guillotine R2 1.51
-Jim O’Keefe def Danny Beevor via GnP R1 2:54
-Mark Brown v Karl Lawrence (Didn’t happen as Brown failed Medical)

UK1Kickboxing Middleweight Title:
-Alex Reid def Jack Mason via unanimous decision R3 3:00